ALFAGTV6.COM

Hey Everyone
I'm interested in knowing ( and seeing) How you guys out there reinforce your GTV6 chassis.

Would like to see and hear ideas (prefer ideas that works from long time experience) of reinforcements WITHOUT ROLL CAGES !!

Thanks
Tomer

On my GTV6, a previous owner mounted square tubes bolted from the back of the torsion bar mounts to the front of the DeDion mounts(one per side). I don't think these do anything for torsional rigidity, but definately direct some force in the plane of the floorpan.

Maybe they were an aftermarket part at one time??

hey x-rad do me a favor and unbolt them and look for any hole hog out...i know on musclecars and most any car thats seen some kind of track time that bolted on frame rail connectors have a nasty habit of hogging out the holes and then snapping the bolts off....thats why most of us who know weld em in.....however if there not hogging out id say there realy not doing anything

x-rad and sh0rtlife

There is such arramgment in the alfa 75.
they have two rails connected with screws between the torsion bars mount and the front de dion chassis mount.

I dont know what they do if anything at all, but this is an original alfathing on late models.

what about welding in some rods at few places ? or welding in triangular metal pieces at fram corners, like between front frame rails to torsion bars mount (bridge) ?

Do you have pictures of rienforcments you'v done on your cars ?
I'm looking for stuff that works well from long time experience for both stiffening and cracks prevention.

Thanks
Tomer

imo the gtv6 is plenty stiff to not worry about it...i generaly deal in classic cars and one thing is certain..bolt ins always hog out...

generaly speaking you want to tie the front rail sections to the rear with some tube steel..mind you dont go overboard on the thickness or it will just punch thru the stock rails you weld it to....i good test to see if a car is still enuf is to lift the car just behind a front tire and see if the other side goes up at about the same rate..on a well stiffened car they will go up very close to the same time with only a jack on a single corner

Tomer,I dont see the need for any re-inforcing on the chassis at all..unless ,as everyone says ,the weldnuts get destroyed..I have never done anything like this and we have run big hp engines in race cars here...
Always used the cage as strengthening for the body though..

On the GTA147`s we did fit the factory supplied front suspension tie up plates o the race cars..They are std. fitment to the road cars though..These simply tie up the removeable x-member to the chassis .After making tight fitting bungs for the x-member bolts,that sort of negated the use of the plates though..there now was no movemnt of the x-member at all...

I know that some cars were made with short torsions..It may have been neccessary to strenghen something here..I dont know.

I do remeber that when using gorilla sized anti roll bars up front,I seriously re inforced the mounting pionts near the chassis leg..the gorrila bars would literarly ripp the mounts out the car..

Must say I'm surprised from your responds.
This GTV's are old cars, and to fix them with more power and huge torsion bars and springs wont need rienforcments at all ?! I heared about lots of GTV's who suffered from cracks at the rails even without any suspension upgrades.(I even saw one with my own eyes)
I know Beninca Added some tubes here and there, and welded them, a specialy at the front of the cars(chassis rails, shock mounts etc )
He claims that without that the car will start to crack.
pleas note that I'm tallking about cars WITHOUT roll cages.

As I say,always have used a cage..Only time a road car without cage came close to cracking anything with me,wa when I got a set of "racing Bilstiens"from a guy here..I put them into my road car and cracked my head the first time I hit a small bump in the road.These things ,I later found,were filled with grease!!!!!!!!!!
Basically they were solid...

All my non cage road cars have been std. body wise..no tubes or plates anywhere..

well, I guess that also depends on the car's rust condition, how many Kilometers/miles its done, the year of model etc ... doesnt it ?

From one hand - I dont want to weld anything on my car's chassis.
on the other hand-lots of pepole saying you MUST stiffen the chassis before putting on big torsion bars and stiffer springs.
they say if you dont, you will end up with car that flexes more, and cracks eventually.
One of the guys who claim that the most, is Joe Beninca.
He claims that the front of the GTV6 in particular, is the weakest section of this cars.

as I said before - I even saw 1979 STANDART SUSPENSION GTV with Lots of cracks... that was sad )-:

Not trying to claim anything...relay! just sharing and want to hear everyones opion in the subject, before I go weld on some ugly tubes

Tomer,My honest opinion here???
Leave the car as is and do your stuff..drive it and see..Ive never on any street car,even with big power ,deemed it neccessary to strengthen anything..There was always other things that gave before the suspension started showing up..
My little 20l turbo had full Autodelta suspension in,never strengthened anything..and she was sweet in the handling dept.
The avatar pic..

Without getting into the issue whether you need strengthening or not, I'll give you my 5 ct.

Without welding there's not that much to do. As increasing the body torsion stiffness requires "3D strengthening" only bolting something in the bottom plane will not help even close to a simple cage.

However, as you want to do what's possible there's something fairly simple which you can do just by bolting. I have basically the same even if mine is welded and not done to strenthen the car (just a pleasant side effect).

Make suitable square tubing under the car from the front of the longitudinal beams. Take them all back to the DeDion crossmember. The bigger the section of the tube the greater the effect. It will protect the bottom and the exhaust as well.

While you're at it you can use the tubes to attach a flat bottom

If you like you can bend the tubes slightly and take them all the way to the back of the car (under the DeDion). Dunno how good this will fit on a road car though. Of course you can take them to the front spoiler as well....

One warning though. When you start and get carried away, I can tell you that with all them welded beams and plates under the car it is not very service friendly anymore